I don't want to turn the stagnation thread astray, so I opened a new thread for my question. Just for the record, this is a quote from Professor Gast.Anyway, I have always heard the same, and it has always been my belief that it is so. But then, why is it than whenever I look into a top 30 sales chart - from Japan - there are barely RPGs among the first 5 - except when big brands are released - and usually only 3 or at most 4 at the top 30? Is it because RPGs are not as abundant as other genres in the market?

Because your timing is off, my friend. Almost all the major current generation RPGs have already been released in Japan (Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria and Seiken Densetsu 4 being the exception) and next-generation RPGs made in Japan are still close to non-existent (that is not yet available).

If one drew up a list of the best selling PlayStation 2 titles in Japan, you would clearly see the dominance of the RPG genre. Just to give you an idea, think about the following facts:

There is one PlayStation 2 RPG that has sold more than three million units (Dragon Quest VIII), three that have sold two million units or more (Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy X-2 and Final Fantasy XII) and two that have sold more than one million copies (Dragon Quest V and Kingdom Hearts II). Furthermore, more than a dozen titles that have sold between 500,000 and one million copies (Kingdom Hearts, Star Ocean Till the End of Time, Radiata Stories, Romancing SaGa, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII and almost all Super Robot Taisen and Tales installments) and at least as many games whose sales performance was between 250,000 and 500,000 copies (Grandia III, UNLIMITED: SaGa, Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, Front Mission 4 and 5, Xenosaga Episode I and II, Genso Suikoden IV and V, Final Fantasy XI, Rogue Galaxy, Tengai Makyou III, Digital Devil Saga Avatar Tuner 1 and 2, Tales of Symponia, etc.). Last but not least, you have tons and tons of RPGs (or RPG series) that do sell above 100,000 copies (Sakura Taisen Atsuki Chishio Ni, Sakura Taisen V, Hagane no Renkinjutsushi, Shining Force Neo, Shining Tears, Shadow Hearts series, Namco X Capcom, Nippon Ichi Software's strategy RPGs, Drag-on Dragoon 1 and 2, Gust's Atelier series, Idea Factory's games, WildARMs, Popolocrois, Arc the Lad, Tengai Makyou II, etc.).

For comparison reasons, there are only four other series on PlayStation 2 that have managed to sell more than (or close to) one million copies with each new installment: Sony Computer Entertainment's Gran Turismo, Mina no Golf, Konami's Winning Soccer Eleven and Koei's Sangoku Musou. Other than that you don't have a lot of stuff that is still capable of selling more than 500,000 copies. Sure, Capcom's action adventure franchises (Biohazard, Devil May Cry, Onimusha), Metal Gear Solid and Tekken still accomplish those feats, but their quantities (with regard to games per genre) are not comparable to RPGs. In short, no other genre sees so many releases and such high sales figures (because of all those high-profile franchises).

Lets not forget that Famitsu (a HUGE magazine in Japan) also did a poll about the most popular games in Japan, and most of the top games were RPGs. Also, other polls show that most of the most-wanted games coming out in Japan this year are RPGs (Valkyrie Profile 2, Final Fantasy III DS, Seiken Densetsu 4, and more). These polls also show the popularity of RPGs in Japan.

Weekly Famitsuu is the one magazine with the largest readership in Japan (and probably the world). Besides, those "which game are looking forward to most" polls are in every damn issue of Weekly Famitsuu. So it's one thing to say "I'm looking forward to it" and to walk into a store and actually buy it.

And you can't overlook the fact that about 95% of RPG's, and the most popular ones among RPG fans in general, are games that come from Japan. i.e.: Final Fantasy VII.

Logged

We hold in our hearts, the sword and the faith. Swelled up from the rain, clouds move like a wraith. Well after all we'll lie another day. And through it all, we'll find some other way. To carry on, through cartilage and fluid. And did you come to stare, or wash away the blood?